CHAP. XII. THE OLIVE MOUNT CUTTING. 231 



iii the collieries here proved of great use to him. Many 

 obstacles had to be encountered and overcome in the 

 formation of the tunnel, the rock varying in hardness 

 and texture at different parts. In some places the 

 miners were deluged by water, which surged from the 

 soft blue shale found at the lowest level of the tunnel. 

 In other places, beds of wet sand were cut through ; 

 and there careful propping and pinning were necessary 

 to prevent the roof from tumbling in, until the masonry 

 to support it could be erected. On one occasion, while 

 Mr. Stephenson was absent from Liverpool, a mass of 

 loose moss-earth and sand fell from the roof, which 

 had been insufficiently propped. The miners withdrew 

 from the work ; and on the engineer's return, he found 

 them in a refractory state, refusing to re-enter the 

 tunnel. He induced them, however, by his example, to 

 return to their labours ; and when the roof had been 

 secured, the work went on again as before. When there 

 was danger, he was always ready to share it with the 

 men ; and gathering confidence from his fearlessness, 

 they proceeded vigorously with the undertaking, boring 

 and mining their way towards the light. 



The Olive Mount cutting was the first extensive 

 stone cutting executed on any railway, and to this day 

 it is one of the most formidable. It is about two miles 

 long, and in some parts more than a hundred feet deep 1 

 It is a narrow ravine or defile cut out of the solid rock ; 

 and not less than four hundred and eighty thousand 

 cubic yards of stone were removed from it. Mr. Yig- 

 nolles, afterwards describing it, said it looked as if it 

 had been dug out by giants. 



The crossing of so many roads and streams involved 

 the necessity for constructing an unusual number of 

 bridges. There were not fewer than sixty-three, under 

 or over the railway, on the thirty miles between Liver- 

 pool and Manchester. Up to this time, bridges had 

 applied generally to high roads, where inclined 



